VIEW FROM THE BLUE

Injustice in its Purest Form

By Lyndon Lloyd   ::  01/10/2011

It's clearly not enough that the playing field has been tilted so far in favour of the Premier League's richest clubs by the yawning and growing gap been the "haves and the "have nots" that the clubs contesting the title and Champions League places are virtually decided before a new season kicks.

No, in addition to the increasing inability to compete with the financially well-endowed, clubs like Everton have to contend with battling bias ? sub-conscious or otherwise ? and sheer incompetence from match officials, the supposed neutral influence guaranteeing fairness and a fair shake for both teams on any given match day. If any Evertonian had any doubts as to the odds stacked against us before, they will surely have been erased by what they witnessed from Martin Atkinson at Goodison today.

The 216th Merseyside derby, hotly anticipated by supporters and over-hyped by the media in the usual fashion... over as a contest as early as the 22nd minute and its inevitable conclusion confirmed in the 71st when Andy Carrol, a mystifying purchase at a staggering £35m, hit the proverbial cow's arse with the banjo when he couldn't miss after Liverpool finally managed to carve the 10-man Blues open.

Up to that point, Everton had tried manfully for almost 50 minutes to climb the mountain created by the referee when he showed Jack Rodwell a straight red card for a tackle that wasn't even a foul let alone a booking, assisted by a quite superb penalty save by Tim Howard two minutes before half time. But it was too big an ask for a side that has struggled for goals with a full complement let alone a man down.

And if Luis Suarez, the villain of the incident that led to an incredulous Rodwell receiving his marching orders, would get to rub salt into gaping wounds with a wholly undeserved second late on... well, that's just the Evertonian lot. Get shafted and take it with dignity because what else can you do?

After the failed bus-parking exercise at Manchester City last weekend, David Moyes went with a more attacking line-up, with Louis Saha replacing Phil Neville in the side and tasked with leading the line ahead of Tim Cahill in an otherwise unchanged starting XI. There was no place for Royston Drenthe which left the Blues predictably short on craft in midfield but they compensated with industry in the opening 20 minutes, creating a handful of chances and racking up five corners in the process.

Marouane Fellaini rapped a deflected left-footed volley narrowly wide after just two minutes and, after a dreadful Phil Jagielka clrarance led to Suarez planting a free header straight at Howard from close range, Tim Cahill prompted Pepe Reina into tipping his far-post header over from Seamus Coleman's deep cross.

A couple of minutes later, some lovely footwork by Sylvain Distin presented the Frenchman with a sight of goal but he swept a decent left-footed shot agonisingly over the bar before Saha saw a low drive fly a yard wide of Reina's right-hand post.

Liverpool had been playing the more composed, attractive football ? as they should seeing as Kenny Dalglish has probably spent more on players in a year than Moyes has in a decade ? but it was Everton who looked the more likely to force the breakthrough.

That was until Rodwell went in with an effective challenge that dispossessed Suarez with a clean contact on the ball but his momentum carried him into the Uruguayan's standing leg, to which Suarez reacted like a sniper had taken him out from the commentators' gantry. As he writhed in supposed pain, referee Atkinson, who could not have been more than a few yards away, couldn't wait to rummage in his left pocket and brandish a red card that no one could believe they were seeing.

Rodwell was apoplectic and after putting his head in his hands, he eventually made his way down the tunnel, kicking anything in his way. Arguably the least feisty and hotly-contested Mersey derby in recent memory was now ruined thanks to the actions of a man whose performance the last time he refereed at Goodison incurred such ire from Moyes and his assistant Steve Round that they were fined for by the FA for their comments.

To be brutally honest, the less said about the game from that point on the better because it had been destroyed as a contest and a spectacle. Atkinson compounded his incompetence by failing to book Fellaini and Tony Hibbert for challenges far worse than Rodwells but the best moment from an Evertonian perspective was Howard denying Dirk Kuyt a 43rd-minute goal from the penalty spot.

Jagielka suffered another moment of madness when clattered through Suarez's leg inside the Everton box and, getting something right for a change, the referee awarded a spot kick. Kuyt went to his right, Howard guessed correctly and palmed his shot wide at full stretch to keep matters goalless going into the break, though parity was almost broken when Charlie Adam rattled the bar with an unerring effort from 25 yards out.

For a team that doesn't normally get enough men forward at the best of times, the second half would prove to be an increasingly frustrating affair, particularly as the unseaosnably warm October weather sapped at the energy of players working overtime at a numerical disadvantage. Leon Osman, who'd looked knackered after one lung-busting run in the first half was a passenger after half time but didn't get withrawn until the 69th minute.

A nicely-worked move between Fellaini and Cahill, though, offered hope of an equaliser but Saha's shot on his weaker foot didn't do the passage of play that preceded it any justice while Kuyt wasted a gilt-edged chance at the other end to break the deadlock.

After an hour, Drenthe was introduced for the ineffectual Coleman and Saha drilled a superb effort just wode from 25 yards out with three defenders backing away but it was Liverpool who would eventually score when Hibbert and the supposedly fresh-legged substitute Neville afforded Luis Enrique too much space and he cut it back to Carrol who turned the ball past Leighton Baines and the stranded Howard.

After that, the Blues' body language betrayed a beaten and tiring side and though there some flashes of inspiration and purpose from Drenthe ? two of those produced a chance for Saha that he sliced over and one for the Dutchman himself that he, unfortunately, powered straight at the 'keeper ? it was the bastard offspring from across Stanley Park that claimed a second when Distin failed to clear after Baines had stopped Suarez in the area and the South American picked his spot beyond Howard to seal a miserable afternoon for the home side.

Moyes claimed after the match that the sending off, as unjustified as it was, did not cost his side the game but it very clearly did. While there is no guarantee that their early penetration would have eventually translated into goals, it was clear after they were reduced to 10 men that they were not going to win this contest.

And so Blues fans have no real recourse but to swallow another horrifying refereeing injustice ? and this was injustice in its purest form ? whole and prepare for the next game, another daunting fixture at Stamford Bridge. Sorry, but football is fucked...

Player Ratings: Howard 7, Hibbert 6, Jagielka 6, Distin 7, Baines 6, Rodwell 6, Osman 5 (Neville 5), Coleman 6 (Drenthe 7), Fellaini 6, Cahill 7 (Vellios 6), Saha 7

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